Mens

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Roman goddess, usually called Mens Bona. Her temple was on the Capitoline in Rome and June 8th the dies natalis celebrated.

for the Romans a concept could be so great that it could only come from a god. They might not know the name of the god so the concept itself became the god's name.^[1]

Mens is an attribute, without which the Roman people and the state could not prosper: call it practical wisdom and prudence in government and affairs. The military disaster of Trasimene resulted in the Libri Sibyllini being consulted. The result was a temple to Mens, vowed by the praetor T. Otacilius Crassus in 217 B.C.E. It was built on the Capitoline. The foundation day, dies natalis, is June 8th.

From coinage and finds in Paestum, the cult statue was that of a seated women reading a scroll in her lap.

Schilling in his excellent study on the cults of Venus, discusses the 2 vowed temples; one to Venus Eryx and the other to Mens, they were separated only by a drainage ditch. He contends that Dea Mens really is an aspect of Venus, and this has been accepted by scholars.

References

1. ↑ Cicero, De natura deorum II.61

Bibliography

• Mario Melo "Mens Bona"
• Robert Schilling "La Religion Romaine de Vénus"
• J.Rufus Fears "The Cult of Virtues"